A California Republican

If Social Security is the third rail of federal politics, then pension reform for state workers is the third rail for state politics in California. Yet the Governor is trying to get it squeezed in at the last minute during these budget negotiations. The Governor says that it is a way to make sure that, in future years, there is ample money for other programs. It won’t help out this budget, and deserves to have public hearings and some scrutiny, but the Governor is trying to squeeze pension reforms in with this budget package.

The reforms include making state workers wait an additional 5 years to have 100% of their health costs paid; instead of getting it at 20 years, state workers would have to work for 25 years to get that payment. Additionally, instead of getting 2% at 55, they would get 2% at 60. Safety and firefighters would get their pensions based on their last three years, the average, salaray rather than the last year under these reforms - which is the same formula all the other state workers have to follow. The state would only pay 85% of the health care premiums, rather than the full 100%, leaving the additional 15% to be funded through……your guess is as good as the information coming out of the Governor’s office.

These are all reforms that seem a little harsh. The reforms tie people to state jobs for 25 years instead of 20. It isn’t a bad thing to raise the retirement age, people are living longer and working harder, but the retirement age and vesting in state healthcare benefits don’t have to be driven up together.

There hasn’t been a lot of debate on these reforms - because they haven’t been public. All there has been is some political rhetoric. Which is never helpful for telling anyone anything of substance.

Debt

Starting tonight, well tomorrow morning, at 12:01, the state begins issuing IOUs for its debts. School districts, state employees, Medi-cal providers and in-home supportive services would not receive IOUs (it has been deemed, through court rulings, that issuing IOUs to these payments is illegal). The Controller says that the only way to stop the IOUs is to have a budget deal by midnight tonight.

In 1992 the state issued IOUs. Banks accepted them for the first month, and then stopped acepting them. The IOUs come with an interest rate that will be set on Thurday.

Mainly, IOUs are more expensive than cash because there is an interest rate that has to be paid on them. If there is no budget plan by midnight tonight, the state is going to end up deeper in the red ink because of the interest payments on the IOUs.

Drills…and more drills

The budget season is abound with drills - the floor vote of budget legislation that everyone knows won’t pass, or won’t be signed into law. Yet these drills are done for a reason. They flush out the debate between the parties, and force the various parties, including the Governor, to state their positions about why they are not voting for the legislation. It is tiring for the public to hear about all the drills and not see anything done. But the drills serve a minor purpose.

Of course, that purpose could be served by sitting down in honest negotiations. But this is the California Legislature, no one expects them to do that.

The countdown

At midnight tonight the state begins issuing IOUs. The legislators know this. Every year they delay the budget, well almost every year, even though the fiscal year never changes and they are obligated, by the Constitution, to have a balanced budget on the Governor’s desk in mid-June. The Legislautre could start budget negotiations early, and keep talking as the situation changes.

But they don’t. The Legislature is as addicted to this last minute push as they are to fundraising. It simply is something they feel they must do. Of course, it doesn’t help that both sides, and the Governor, are so far apart right now. No one is willing to let their ideology go, and do what is in the best interest of the state, and the people they represent. Instead, they are striving to keep their jobs and get re-elected next year by staying in their ideological positions.

The clock is ticking.

Late Sunday night the Assmebly voted to pass a $23.4 billion budget package of cuts, taxes, fee increases and accounting tricks. The package was designed to close the hole in the budget when the fiscal year begins on Wednesday, July 1, 2009.

The budget package was a “majority vote” package; only the majority, Democrats, had to vote for it in order for it to pass. The Democrats are relying on the fact that they eliminated a tax, and raised fees, which is “revenue neutral” and so doesn’t need a two-thirds majority, but only needs a simple majority. They eliminated a gas excise tax, and introduced new fees on oil production and cars.

Somehow, the Democrats forget basic, elementary math lessons. If the money coming in is more, or greater, under the new plan than the old plan ,then it is not revenue neutral. However, Democrats are arguing that it is revenue neutral because the amount being brung in by taxes is the same, although fees replace some of the taxes. Democrats believe that there is no need for a two-thirds majority on the fee increases.

There are also several accounting tricks in the budget package, and no real reform. There is simply nothing in the package that solves the problem. It merely changes the nature of the problem. How can the Democrats believe that they can institute “fees” on various sections of the population to pay for services they don’t use, and possibly don’t want? Simply because they believe they cannot cut social services or education. Therefore, they make their fantasy a reality.

Good thing the Governor has vowed to veto the bill.

Now they need to get down to work and solve the problem. Wednesday is coming even closer.

State workers are gettinga tough break. They don’thave control over their salaries, job descriptions, job stability, or much else. They do have control over deciding to work for the state, but then control in your job ends there.

Many state workers took state jobs because of the pensions. If they work for 20 years and pay into the pension fund, then they are guaranteed health benefits for life, and a good pension. In order to obtain that level of security, state workers work for less than their counterparts, and give up control of their job security. Most state workers have felt this is an okay trade. Many are re-thinking that position.

The Governor has said that if the Legislature doesn’t pass a budget solution by July 1st, he will institute a 3rd furlough day for state workers. State workers are already taking a pay cut that amounts to 9.3% by having two fulough days. The Governor says that this will save $500 million in  one year.

But what will it cost?

There are approximately 700,000 state workers in the greater Sacramento area. This doesn’t count the other state workers in San Francisco, LA, San Diego, Oakland and other locations. State workers are going to be facing fiscal troubles if forced to take another pay cut. Most state workers have mortages, bills, car loans, and education costs that they are paying for themselves or their families. Another pay cut may mean that they canont pay for these things, and will go into default, bankruptcy or foreclosure.

In a time when the Governor says he wants to stimulate spending, circulating rumors of another pay cut isn’t the way to go. State workers are going to save more and spend less. In Sacramento, this may mean that many of the resturaunts in downtown, who rely on the business of state workers for lunch, will close. Downtown business that cater to state workers are going to close. Areas with large concentrations of state workers are going to see a downturn in spending. This won’t stimulate the economy, this will simply hurt it more.

State workers shouldn’t be punished. They are politically expedient to attack because there are a lot of misconceptions about state workers. The misconceptions are pushed by union actions, like actions the SEIU takes and the CCPOA takes. But most state workers aren’t the stereotype. They work hard, maybe they have some downtime, but every job does. State workers work for their money, just like everyone else.

They shouldn’t be punished because the state leaders cannot get their acts together.

The constitutional officers’ staffs still have not been furloughed. The court said the Governor had the power to order the furloughs, and the constitutional officers are saying they won’t do it, which simply causes the other state workers to take a harder hit.

 When do the tricks end and the real discussions and solutions begin? Not any time soon if this is any indication.

There is something wrong in the California State Senate. There is a budget crisis which hasn’t been resolved. There is a need for fiscal stability in the state, which hasn’t been dealt with. There are any number of pressing issues: water, prison overload, environmental concerns and children. So what do you think the Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committe is going to deal with today?

A way to make care for veterans easier to access? Making care cost less by using new technologies? Using electronic medical records to help keep costs down? A way to use preventative care, or use federal programs, to provide more for the veterans? Nope. The Senate Veteran’s Affairs Committee will be discussing Senate Joint Resolution (SJR) 9: A non-binding resolution that asks Congress and President Obama to repeal the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy currently in place for the military.

The measure is backed by Sen. Kehoe and Leno; both Democrats and both of the homosexual persuasion.

Once again, the Senate is up to its fun and games. Instead of dealing with the issues that need dealing with, they are going to pass a resolution on a federal issue - nothing the state does will matter on this issue. No one will be surprised that California did this. No one is going to even look twice at it. Maybe if Utah passed a similar resolution someone might take note. But instead of dealing with the real issues that affect Californians, our elected officials are dealing with things that don’t matter, and cannot matter, at the state level. This is more grandstanding on the homosexual vote. This does nothing of value for the people of California. Something the Senate needs to learn is that federal issues are dealt with at the federal level.

If you are really interested in repealling “don’t ask, don’t tell,” get involved and flood your Congressman’s mail with letters.

The Democrats unveiled their completed budget proposal yesterday. Among the items in the proposal - eliminate the graduation requirement that high school graduates must pass the California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE).

Assembly Speaker Karen Bass (D) states, “Why would you hold students accountable to meet a standard that we are not providing funding to meet?” Sorry. There must be some confusion. This is the CASHEE. The exam that tests Math at an 8th grade level and English at a 9th grade level. How are high school seniors, graduates, not having the resources to meet these standards in the first place? The plan will save less than $10 million per year statewide.

The CASHEE was the first real accountability standard in place for high schools. It prevented students from being social promoted right through graduation. 90% of the 2008 graduating class had passed the exam by May 2008. Students are given chances to start taking the exam in 10th grade, and students who do not do well are given remedial tutoring.

The bigger story should be that there are students in 10th grade that cannot pass an exam that tests things they should’ve learned. The school system is about social promotion - don’t hold the student back until they learn the basics, like reading comprehension - instead pass them up and let them be someone else’s problem. This isn’t the solution.

In a budget deficit where the numbers grow larger every day, the Conference Committee actually spent time debating a move that saves around $10 million a year, or less. $10 million. The budget deficit, this morning, was put at $24.3 billion. They spent time on $10 million.

What the Democrats really did was took an opportunity to try and slip a policy change into the budget. This is a policy change, not a budget solution. The California Teacher’s Association (CTA) has hated the CASHEE since it began. The reason they give is that students should be able to graduate high school without a mandatory exam. Why? Because the CTA doesn’t want their teachers held accountable. The CTA likes the current system of tenure without accountability. Therefore, anything that smells of accountibility is not somthing the CTA likes. The CTA is a major Democratic donor. So when the opportunity arises, the Democrats do what they can for the CTA.

Elimination of the CASHEE is a mistake. The CASHEE is the only standard that all high schoolers, college bound or not, must meet in California. Having a standard means that a California high school diploma means something, that the student has met a certain standard. Without the CASHEE the diploma will go back to meaning nothing.

The Democrats don’t mind this. They say that the schools will have more flexibility with funds if they don’t have to remediate students who don’t pass the CASHEE in 10th grade.  Instead, they can spend the funds on something else? Really? Not remediate students who cannot meet basic goals of grades they already passed? That is a failure of the school system.

Keep the CASHEE. Keep the standard. Keep the high expectations of the students, they will rise to meet them.

“It’s outrageous that the Legislature would ask Californians to pay higher taxes but refuse to cut the pay of state workers by 5 percent. This is exactly why so many Californians have lost faith in Sacramento’s ability to solve problems,” Schwarzenegger, a Republican, said in a statement. The governor ordered furloughs for state workers that began earlier this year and amount to, approximately, 9.2% pay cut. Now he wants the Legislature to order another 5% pay cut.

The Governor’s being ridiculous. The state workers are taking the brunt of this budget battle when it is not their fight. Most state workers work for their paychecks. They took a state job because, although the pay is lower than in the private sector, there are good benefits and stability. State workers aren’t the problem with the state budget.

To discover the problem with the state budget, the Governor needs only look in the mirror. He has signed budgets that have drastically expanded spending in the years he has been Governor. He hasn’t used his veto power to bring the budgets in line with reasonable revenue forecasts. He hasn’t proposed anything new, nothing to “blow up the boxes,” that would fix the problem.

Instead the Governor picks on the people who help the state run. The state workerrs are the people at DMV who process driver’s license’s and car registrations. They are the peopel who cut paychecks for other state workers. State workers process child welfare payments, health insurance claims, make day cares safe, and provide the support for all the state services. They aren’t the budget problem. The savings from cutting state worker pay are minimal . In some departments they aren’t savings at all because workers then work overtime to get everything done that they have to get done. The work the workers have to do doesn’t stop because of furloughs, it simply gets paid at an overtime rate.

The Governor needs to take a look at other options. State workers help keep Sacramento’s economy afloat. They spend their money, pay their mortgages, buy houses and cars, and support other businesses in their local communities. They aren’t the budget problem with the state.

The state spends money on an “arts camp” during the summer in the education budget. They pay firefighters 2.5 times their pay rate on overtime instead of the 1.5 that everyone else gets. They allow the CCPOA to negotiate contracts that give their employees outrageous raises and pay scales. The state pays the budget for the Legislature - who instead of fixing the problems within their perview - spends time creating more bills to spend more money in a year when there is no money to be spent. Want to cut some pay? Cut the Legislature’s budget to exactly what it needs to fund the pay for the legislators. Make them work without staff. The staff isn’t doing any good, they aren’t being creative with solutions and urging their members to do the right thing. Instead the staff is spending their time ferrying the members around, and creating bills that spend more money.

Governor, look elsewhere for your savings.

I don’t pretend to be an expert on water politics, and I don’t think there is one out there. Water politics in California are very complicated. There are the farmers, conservationists, planners and developers. There are individuals, communities, towns and cities. There are places that need water in the desert, farms in what you wouldn’t be able to call farmland if it wasn’t for the aqueduct, and other problems. But there is one constant - Californian’s use more water than is available.

A large part of the blame rests on farmers. There are technologies out there to help them use less water, but those technologies are expensive. It costs more to implement water saving faming technology than it does to simply continue as is. Farmers have agrarian water rights - they can use the water that they have access to. Farmers think they can use it without restrictions, and there is some legal backing for that position.

Another problems is that peolpe have built in desert areas and depend on imported water. Southern California is one of the biggest abusers of this. Southern California is an area without a lot of rainfall locally. Instead they depend on huge imports of water from Northern California and the Colorado river. When those imports go down, there is a water shortage. Southern California has been built up way past the ability the area has to support humans, plants and animals with water.

Northern Californians are tired of sending their water to the south. Instead of hearing about water shortages here, they want to stop sending water to the south. Instead of having to conserve, they want to cut off water supplies to other locations - including the farms.

Then there is the issue with the Delta pumps. It turns out that the Delta pumps cannot run without endangering the Delta ecosystem. So the pumps have to be limited in use, which means water from the Delta isn’t flowing southward like it used to.

There is also issues about water storage. Regardless of what type of storage you want, water storage is important. Water storage allows the state to have stores of water to support the economy, and the lives of the residents, in months where there isn’t a lot, or any, rain. However, instead of acknowledging a need for storage, the Democrats in the Legislature bemoan the environmental impacts of building water storage. What about the impacts of not having enough water? Conserve, they say.

Conservation of water isn’t as easy as it sounds. People use water for everything. Companies use water to make everything. And then there are the farmers who use water for creating the food that feeds Californians.

Water is taking second place to the budget right now, which makes sense. However, with the summer season on us, and below average snow and rain fall this year, maybe it is time to think about water storage. Communities are getting increasingly less rain, which means there is some desertification going on (places are becoming drier). There needs to be some storage to help communities through these hard times and to save a precious resource. Collecting rain that falls into some sort of storage will be good for California.

As a bonus, think of the people who can be hired to build the water storage facilities.

“When a leader is in the Democratic party he’s a boss; when he’s in the Republican party he’s a leader” Harry S Truman

The Governor is complaining that the Legislature isn’t making all the cuts he wants them to. He needs to stop complaining and, instead, vow to use his power of veto.

It is the only power the Governor really has in the budget. He proposes his budget on January 10th, and his May Revision in early May. Then the Legislature goes to work and does what they want with the budget, and finally the budget bill lands on his desk - its supposed to be there mid-June, but the Legislature never gets it there in time. Then the Governor can exercise his true power - the line-item veto.

If the Governor doesn’t want something to have money spent on it, then he can line-item veto it. He can eliminate words from the budget, and money from the budget. He doesn’t have to fully eliminate things, he can simply eliminate partial amounts. he can also eliminate full amounts.

Why doesn’t he want to do this? Well, he wants the Legislature to fix the budget. His rhetoric is saying that the Legislature has the job to fix the budget, and so they should do it. Additionally, if the Legislature makes the cuts, then the Governor doesn’t get the blame for making the cuts. Instead of being the Governor who wants to “Blow up the boxes” he wants to be the Governor who doesn’t have to make the hard decisions.

All of the decisions he has made have been decisions that look good, or will shock people. The closure of the parks was meant to shock people. The cut in pay to state workers is a decision that looks good to non-state workers. This is the type of Governor we have; the flashy type, not the good, solid, decision-making type.

The Governor cannot add funds to the budget when it reaches his desk, he can only eliminate them. So it is time to stop prancing around the issue and tell the Legislature that he’s going to eliminate funds through his powers of veto. And start with the Legislature. Eliminate their funding so they can only be part-time.

If anyone thinks that Senator Mark Leno (D) is more interested in grandstanding than in politics, and doing his job, then you are correct. Senator Leno proved, once again, that he’s interested in grandstanding, not in solving the problems of the state.

This week, during Conference committe hearings, Leno was remarking on Social Security benefits. One of the proposals on the table to solve the California state budget deficit, and the one that Leno was hearing about at the time of his remarks, was to remove the state disability benefits (SDI), but leave in place the federal disability benefits (SSI). There is an interesting thing about the state benefits, and the federal benefits. If you are two individuals, you get more money from the benefits than if you are a married couple because of the cap put on married couple’s benefits. However, there is survivor benefits for both to the married spouse of the dead person.

Leno wanted to know if the California Supreme Court’s upholding of Prop. 8 changed anything at the state, and federal levels. He wanted to know if civil unions were treated the same at the state and federal level, and if not, then marriage isn’t merely a “word” as the California Supreme Court said it was.

There are a few interesting facts:  Senator Leno is homosexual and makes no bones about it. Senator Leno represents San Francisco - which has a high concentration of homosexual people. He is also in desperate need of his district’s support, because he might be facing a primary challenge at the next election.

Also, the federal government, regardless of what California did, doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages as being marriages at the federal level. In California a civil union is granted the same survivor benefits as a marriage. These facts were true before Prop. 8 was upheld by the California Supreme Court and were true before Prop. 8 was passed by the people.

The thing that makes Leno’s remarks so absurd is that he should know this. As a crusader for same-sex marriage rights, he should know that nothing about the federal government requires them to recognize same-sex marriages performed in a state. He knew this before he question, and during his question. He knew that no matter what California does to SDI, the federal government doesn’t recognize same-sex marriages for purposes of SSI, survivor benefits, or anything else.

That’s what makes his question so absurd, and grandstanding. Instead of focusing the attention on the issue before him, he focused it on something that he already knows the answer to. Instead of focusing his energies on how to get a solution to the budget deficit, he focused on how he could score points with his constituents, and what a good sound-byte he thinks he gave.

Senator Leno - focus on the issues or remove yourself from the Conference committee. There are enough problems that need real solutions, not grandstanding.